


On the other side of the crescent moon

by Keyvvi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Castaway, F/M, I will add characters and tags as the story goes, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Mentions of Drowning, Mentions of Injuries, POV Keith (Voltron), POV Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn, Wow I never knew tagging was this hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-26 02:05:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12546404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keyvvi/pseuds/Keyvvi
Summary: The last thing Lance could remember was boarding a ship to the new continent Arus. What he could not remember was how he ended up injured and alone on the shore of an unfamiliar island.Trying to search for other survivors, Lance made his way deeper into the island, just to face the true dangers of nature.On the other side there was Keith, who was on his way to the new continent to retrieve his money for a finished mission when suddenly the weather drastically changed into a storm and the ship crashed into a seemingly invisible wall.After being rescued from drowning by this strange healer named Pidge and swimming to the shore, Keith tried to repay his debt by helping Pidge in their search for their brother, who was separated from them on the ship.Though, what both parties did not know was, their lives would have turned out a lot more peaceful, had they not stepped into the forest of Altea._____This story will be told from Lance's and Keith's POV.





	1. Alone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wasterella](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wasterella/gifts).



> Ayy~ Welcome, welcome!
> 
> This fanfiction is dedicated to my beautiful beta-reader Wasterella. You wrote so many fics for me, so I wanted to repay you with one of my own. Thank you so much for always being this amazing friend and putting up with silly ol me <3
> 
> That being said. This is the first fanfiction that I have ever written. I hope it didn't turn out too bad. 
> 
> Here we go~

** Lance **

 

 

Blue. 

 

Blue was the first thing Lance saw when he opened his eyes.  It was not the thing that had woken him.  The source of his rude awakening has been this slow wet feeling that now spreads under him. 

 

However Lance did not care. He was too tired. 

 

_ Tired… Just five more seconds. _ Lance closed his eyes and slowly drifted off into the calm embrace of sleep once more.

 

 _What?_ Lance’s eyes sprung open. Wet. It wasn’t just ‘wet’ Lance now realised, he was drenched. 

 

Bolting upright as fast as he could Lance hissed and only then realised his mistake. A sharp pain shot through his head. 

 

_ “Quiznak!” _ Lance moaned and brought his fingers slowly to the source of his pain, only to realise that blood now stuck to his fingers. He must have knocked his head on something. This was not good. Lance had no money to visit a healer, he realised and thought about asking Hunk for help. Lance needed to tend to this wound as quickly as possible before it got infected, or worse.

 

A new wave of wetness enclosed Lance and he winced. He was so shocked by the fact that he hit his head somewhere that he did not even realise where he was. The blue thing that Lance saw upon waking up for the first time was the sky, that much he has figured out, but what he did not expect was a whole different blue that he now looked at. In front of Lance a wide blue ocean stretched out. 

 

This did not make any sense. The last thing Lance could remember was that Hunk and he finally saved up enough money for the ship that would bring them to the new continent Arus. 

 

How did he end up at… - His thought was broken off by a new wave crashing into Lance which made him jump. He definitely needed to move out of the water and get a little bit closer to the shore which in theory sounded easier than it was. Lance had to do something about this damn headache, to stop the throbbing that went through his whole head when he tried to get to his feet.

  
  


A few meters into the beach he had to sit down again, more like fall back into the sand. It hurt too damn much and now that he walked for bit he also felt the dizziness that made him want to vomit. Did he have a concussion? Lance hoped not. There were more important things he had to figure out first. Before everything else Lance needed to know where the fuck he was and how he got here. The next important question was: Where was Hunk? Lance could remember that he boarded the ship with Hunk but that still did not explain… The ship! Where was the ship? 

 

Lance slowly sat up again to take a look at the horizon in hopes of spotting the ship he and Hunk boarded a few days ago. Was it a few days ago? He could not remember. What happened?

 

But even after standing up again to get a better view, Lance did not see any sign of their ship.

 

He was fucked. Stranded on an island, without any other soul nearby, with a potential concussion and, now that he thought about it, he was also pretty thirsty. 

 

Lance did not know how a person should act in this situation. Should he wait at the beach for other people to find him? Aside from Lance and Hunk there were a lot more people on the ship and there was a very high possibility that  some other poor soul also washed ashore on this island.

 

Yes. That would be the best idea. Besides, he had this bad headache and needed to rest a little bit. He just needed to watch out not to fall asleep because if Lance really did have a concussion, he might lose consciousness or even fall into a coma, which would be more than bad given his current situation and maybe, if he was lucky, someone would find him after he rested.

 

 

* * *

 

Nobody came.

 

Lance could not really say how much time had passed but based on how low the sun had sunk he could tell that it was probably somewhere in the afternoon, and his thirst was slowly killing him.

 

Luckily his headache turned from a throbbing to a slight ache at the side of his head. With just a little bit of luck it would turn out that it was just a small cut, and of course a headache because he hit his head somewhere... but enough about this head, Lance needed water and he could not drink the ocean water, he knew at least that much.

Looking at the forest behind him, Lance wondered how big it was and if he should bring anything with him to mark his path, so he wouldn’t get lost. The forest seemed quite big and with Lance’s sense of direction he’d definitely get lost at some point. 

 

This was theoretically a good idea, but there was a small problem that came into his mind: 

What would he use to mark his path?

 

Looking around, Lance could only find sand and water. Some rocks or shells would help, but even these objects were nowhere in sight. 

 

Guess he was out of luck.

 

Shaking his head and hoping for the best, Lance made his way into the forest.  It wouldn't be that bad. He hoped.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Lance was lost.

 

A forest like this was not something he had ever seen on the continent of Kerberos. Not only were the trees on this island wider and larger than any ‘normal’ tree in Kerberos but there were also the sounds of these foreign birds and other creatures that Lance did not recognize.

 

After walking for a good while Lance noticed this specific tree with this strange hole, that looked like a crescent moon on it’s side. This tree, Lance noticed, he had passed at least four times by now and there was still no water in sight. Lance was sure, he was definitely lost.

 

At this point Lance was so thirsty that he would be satisfied with just any drop of water, even if it meant drinking some muddy water out of a puddle. Yes, he did sink that low, but with the sun still shining bright from above and with the hike he just got over with, it wasn’t that surprising. Not even the shade that the big trees above Lance provided sheltered him enough from the big glowing ball above him.

 

Walking for another perceived hour and passing the crescent yet again, Lance gave up. 

 

This could not be happening right now. He was thirsty, his head was hurting and he started feeling hungry around one hour ago. Sighing Lance leaned against the strange tree and closed his eyes. 

 

_ Focus Lance, _ he thought to himself. There was no way he would find a way out of this forest if he was this stressed out. 

 

_ Breathe in and breathe out _ .

 

Closing his eyes and rubbing his temples Lance also leaned his head against the tree to get more comfortable. The thing he did not realise was that his head touched the crescent hole. What he did notice was that strange whirring sound that started to ring in his ears, but it was already too late. 

 

The tree had disappeared into thin air and the only thing he could manage at this point was a small gasp and a waggle of his arms before Lance fell backwards a small hill downwards, that he could swear was not there before.

 

Lance hit the ground hard, first with his back, followed by his head which was already hurting from his previous injury. Trying to grasp the grass or some root did not help at all because he was already rolling down the hill with no way to stop. 

 

After rolling a few meters with no halt in sight, ironically Lance’s saviour was another strange tree that blocked his path down. With his last strength Lance practically clawed his nails into the bark before he rolled any further down the hill.  

 

“ _ This can not be happening right now, _ ” Lance whispered to himself after he was finally stable enough to stand. 

 

After catching his breath, Lance just then noticed the small patter of water behind himself and without thinking for a second longer Lance raced the few meters down the hill and towards the sound of water, while trying not to stumble over a branch and end up adding a broken neck to the list of injuries he could feel all over his body at this point.

 

Reaching the bottom of the hill a small clearing opened up and Lance almost cried in happiness when he saw the small stream in front of him. Not thinking about the consequences of drinking possibly dirty or contaminated water Lance dived head first into the water and drank the water with big gulps until his thirst was quenched.

 

After mentally crossing out one priority on his list Lance splayed himself next to the river and gazed up into the sky. His eyes were greeted with a calming shade of orange and red and only then he realised how much time had passed. This made Lance sit up again. 

 

It’s going to be dark soon. Not only was Lance still hungry and had no house to sleep in, no scratch that, a house would be a luxury at his current state, he needed to find a cave or a big tree, somewhere where he could lay down without fearing to be shredded to death by some animal that was lured in by the scent of his cold sweat in the air.

 

It was Lance’s luck that he still did not meet any creature while he was walking around the forest, but he was sure that a forest that big was definitely inhabited by some horrendous animal and if not that, Lance did not want to be awoken by a rainstorm starting or because he was being bitten by some strange tropical bug. 

 

By now it was still pretty warm, even with the sun almost gone, but this warmth would not be there over the night, he assumed. Lance definitely needed to make a fire somehow. 

 

Thinking back Lance could remember talking about this with Hunk some years ago. In the past both boys loved to play this game called ‘what if’. 

 

Basically it’s just them talking about what they would do in a specific scenario. To give an example, Lance would ask Hunk what he would do if he was being held captive by an evil mastermind and Hunk would answer with a ridiculous solution on how he would get out of the grasp of his abductor. 

 

Even though these questions were, most of the time, just meant as a joke, their discussions could turn out pretty serious and became very helpful in the end. Like in Lance’s situation right now.

 

Lance could remember talking to Hunk about what he would do if he needed to light a fire in the middle of the forest, with no gadgets at hand.

 

_ “I guess these ridiculous exchanges did help me in the end, who would have thought,”  _ Lance whispered to himself. Shaking his head, Lance tried to remember the exact order of steps and materials he would need for his task.     

 

A knife would be a good start, or more like something sharp, and his only option in this forest to find something sharp enough to resemble a knife would be a stone. He would need this stone to cut some wood or bark off one of the many trees, so Lance started walking along the stream in hopes of finding the right stone. 

 

Sadly Lance could only detect stones that were smoothed out by the water over the years. There had to be at least one stone he could use…

 

Following the stream deeper into the forest Lance noticed that the stream got wider and slowly turned into a smallish river with a lot of rocks around it. This looked like the perfect place to find something sharp.

 

Searching around the water, Lance picked up stone after stone and when he finally was content with the sharpness of one of them, and also because the sun was almost completely gone, Lance sprinted to the first tree he could find, which had bark slowly peeling off at its sides.

 

Lance stuck his makeshift blade between it and, more ripped than cut, the bark off the tree. A small piece would be more than enough.

 

Running through the forest while looking for a safe and dry enough spot to make camp Lance gathered, what he hoped, were enough dry sticks and leaves for his plan.

 

After finding a small dry area under a big tree and a small piece of wood from a fallen tree, that Lance could use as a base, Lance started to built a small nest for his fire.

 

He placed his dry rocks in a small circle and put the leaves inside it. With that done Lance put the small piece of wood on the ground and used the sharp stone to cut a small notch in the middle of it.

 

Now he had to only place a small piece of bark underneath the notch, and he could start his ‘drilling’. Lance placed a small stick with one end in the notch, then held it between his flat palms and started to roll the stick back and forth as fast as he could while also pushing the stick firmly into the notch.

 

This would take some time, but if Lance continued his spinning, he should be able to create small pieces of ember that he then had to transfer, with the help of his bark, into the dry area of his nest. 

 

Lance sighed in relief when he finally was able to create a small flame. He then slowly blew air on the tinder nest to transfer the ember and with that create a bigger flame. 

 

This took longer than he anticipated but in the end he created a big enough fire that would keep him warm for the night. Adding more wood to the fire, Lance tried to find a comfortable enough position against the big tree for him to at least try to sleep. 

 

Lance grew up in a city that was always illuminated by lamps and never had the experience of camping in a forest. Not used to this kind of deep darkness, that swallowed his surroundings, Lance felt more than uncomfortable. Even with the fire illuminating the area around him, Lance could only oversee a small circle of the forest. 

 

The night brought various new animals with it whose cries made Lance shiver in fear. He never heard those sounds and could not match any of them to the animals he knew from Kerberos. Lance just hoped that they were small creatures, that didn’t want to eat his tasty human flesh.

 

But even with these horrible thoughts not leaving his head, Lance was overwhelmed by how tired he was and slowly drifted off into sleep.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Rustling woke Lance up and made him slowly sit up from the ground, he must have slid to the floor while sleeping. 

 

Beside the rustling Lance didn’t hear anything. It was quiet, too quiet.

 

Lance did not like this. All the animals Lance heard on the previous day had gone quiet, as if in fear from whatever was rustling a few meters to Lance’s right.

 

Guardedly Lance got up on his feet and making as little noise as possible Lance felt for his makeshift blade on the floor to have at least something to defend himself. 

 

Lance waited.

 

But maybe this was a bad idea. Lance did not know what kind of creature was hiding in the forest. He was a small merchant in Kerberos and didn’t know anything about how to fight. Maybe he should just run… Yes, that would be more wise.

 

Taking a small step to the side, Lance tried to quietly escape. 

 

Sadly, in his fear, Lance forgot about the massive tree he slept against, and when he took another step to the side, Lance stumbled over a thick root and fell to the ground.

 

_ “Shit,” _ Lance whispered in horror. The rustling had stopped.

 

Lance jumped back to his feet and snapped his head to side when the rustling started anew, but this time it was moving towards him.

 

Something jumped out of the thick shrubbery and Lance out of panic threw his sharp blade at the source while screaming and shielding his head with his other hand.

 

Nothing happened.

 

Suddenly Lance felt something touch his feet. That made Lance remove his hand and look down.

 

Hares.

 

Lance was scared and screamed like a little girl because apparently some bunnies rustled in the bushes. A small shuddering laugh escaped Lance.

 

_ “Hey there little fellas.”  _ Lance squatted to the ground and smiled.  _ “You scared the living shit out of me! Please never do this again.” _

 

Extending an arm to pet the animals,  Lance heard a huffing sound coming from the same direction the hares had come from.

His hand stilled midair.

 

Instead of looking at shrubs, Lance’s eyes met something that made the hair all over his body stand up.

 

Yellow eyes and a big wide mouth that was pulled into a smiling grimace with many sharp teeth stained red greeted Lance. The fur on the creature's face, if you even could call it a face, was dark purple, maybe even black and at the top of its head rose antlers.

 

Lance didn’t dare to move. The monster just stared at him, doing strange twitching movements with its head as if the creature wanted to tilt it to the side but was stuck and tried to loosen it up. Strings of red drool dripped down its mouth and were already starting to pool in the grass.

 

After Lance finished this thought the creature stopped its shaky head movements and stilled.

 

With a loud cracking noise it seemed to want to raise to its full height. And rise it did. Lance couldn’t move, he just stared straight ahead, fearing for his life.

 

Seemingly finished the creature stepped out of the bush and towards Lance.

 

Fully out into the open, Lance could observe that the monster was at least two meters tall with its stooped over form and its massive claws, that almost reached the ground, were covered in blood. In one of the claws Lance saw a dead and bloody animal he could not recognise because it was so demolished.

 

Getting the courage to look up, Lance noticed that the creature’s head started to twitch again, its grimace getting wider.

 

With that the monster heaved its massive claw into the air and threw its previous prey behind itself into the forest. The monster did not need it anymore. It found a new, bigger one it now could play with.

 

Lance was dead. He was so dead.

 

  
  



	2. A dept to repay

**Keith**

 

Black.

 

Keith was embraced by this tight feeling of black when he opened his eyes. He had never felt this secure and safe in his whole life. 

 

Slowly closing his eyes again, Keith let the darkness swallow him and started drifting away, feeling like he was sinking. He was safe.

  
  


Keith felt so weak that he did not realise that someone had grabbed him and was now pulling him up. 

 

_ “-th. … -me on!” _

 

Where did this noise come from and why did the secure feeling of sinking leave him? What was going on?

 

_ “-ap out of it! Fucking breathe.” _

 

This last word made Keith realise what was happening.

 

_ Breathe? I can’t breathe! _

 

Forcing his body to pull air into his lungs, Keith vomited. 

 

_ “Fuck. That’s disgusting.” _ Keith heard a person mutter, now more clearly than before. But he ignored it for the moment, he could breathe again. 

 

Opening his eyes after realizing what had just happened, Keith took in his surroundings. It was night, Keith was in the ocean and also clinging to a piece of wood with another person at his side.

 

_ “You okay over there?” _ Keith heard the person say. 

 

Ignoring the question, Keith tried to remember what happened. He was on a ship to Kerberos, how did he end up in the water?

 

_ “What happened?” _ Keith turned to the stranger.  _ “Where is the ship?” _

 

_ “Don’t ask me dude. The only thing I can remember is that I was searching for my brother. I went on the deck of the ship to continue my search when I heard - no, more like felt the crash,” _ the person tried to explain.  _ “I was hurled off the ship at the impact and I guess that’s how I ended up in the water.” _

 

_ “A crash?” _ Keith asked surprised.  _ “What did we crash into? We were in the middle of the sea!” _

 

_ “Don’t ask me. I told you everything I have,” _ the stranger declared.  _ “That aside, we probably should swim to this island over there. My legs are starting to hurt from treading water.” _

 

_ Island? _ Keith looked around in search of the island his companion was talking about.

 

_ “Over there!” _ The stranger pointed to a small black line at the horizon. It was so dark, Keith did not see it at first.

 

_ “Wow. You have really good eyes,” _ Keith exclaimed.  _ “I could not see it in this darkness.” _

 

The stranger did not reply and just started kicking their legs with the piece wood as leverage in front of them in the direction of the island.

 

Keith followed their example and so both of them made their way to the small black line in front of them.

 

* * *

 

 

By the time the two reached the shore, the sun was starting to come out and the sky turned peach coloured.

 

After having used all their power to get to the shore,  Keith and his companion sprawled themselves numbl y on the sand and let the sun dry their soaked clothes. 

 

They spent a few minutes just lying on the sand and observed the sun as it calmly rose.

 

Wanting to say something, Keith turned his head to the side to address the other person directly but his words got stuck in this throat. He widened his eyes and slowly rose up into a sitting position, looking at the stranger.

 

_ “What are you looking at?” _ the person asked.

 

_ “Oh, sorry.” _ Keith averted his eyes,  _ “It’s just that I could not see you in the dark and just now realised how small you are. How did you even manage to pull me out of the water?” _

 

_ “I may look like a small weakling but let me tell you something.” _ The person straightened, cleaning their spectacles.  _ “My brother and I are healers. For the past few years we were working and trying to find a cure for the poor people on Balmera.” _

 

Hearing this, Keith’s eyes widened. He’d heard of Balmera and its current epidemic state. 

 

Balmera, a large piece of land which was located south of Arus, had been weakened by a strange and incurable disease for the past few years. No one knew where it had come from, or why it was only infectious to the Balmerans.

 

Many healers from Arus traveled to Balmera to research this strange, deadly illness and maybe even find a cure. But in all these years there was no success.

 

_ “Judging by the look on your face I am going to guess you heard of Balmera’s state, yes?” _ The person continued,  _ ”It was not easy. Trying to help these people while knowing deep inside that there is no hope left for them. The point I wanted to make is that we had to lift up and carry a lot of people in the sick room and I guess I got used to lifting things or people who are far heavier than me.” _

 

Ashamed for judging this person, Keith was at a loss for words.

 

_ “Pidge,” _ the stranger said after a heavy silence stretched on for a while.

 

_ “What?” _ Keith asked, turning his gaze yet another time in the person's direction.

 

_ “My name is Pidge. Pidge Holt.” _

 

_ “Keith Kogane,” _ Keith returned, stretching out a hand to shake the person’s - no Pidge’s hand.

 

At that, the two of them smiled and again splayed themselves on the sand.

 

The sun was now fully out, and shined brightly down on them.

 

_ “What were you doing on a ship to Kerberos?” _ Keith wanted to know after another silence stretched between them.  _ “Weren’t you stationed in Balmera? Why did you leave?” _

 

Pidge took a deep breath.  _ “See, we heard that Kerberos is far more advanced than Balmera and Arus in terms of medical research. My brother and I made our way to the new continent after a traveller from Kerberos informed us of this. We thought there was still some hope left for the Balmerans and -” _ A loud rumble interrupted Pidge, and they turned a shocked look on Keith.

 

_ “I’m sorry,” _ Keith mumbled, embarrassed, _ “I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday morning. My stomach is killing me.” _

 

Pidge smiled.  _ “Well, I think this is our cue to stop wallowing in sadness and get our asses up to do something useful, like find some drinking water and food.” _

 

_ “Right.” _ Keith sat up, glad that Pidge had the same intention.

 

Turning around Keith only then noticed the big forest stretching out behind them.

 

_ “Holy quiznak,” _ Pidge choked out in surprise after inspecting the woodland,  _ “I did not even know trees that big existed. Can you imagine what kind of animals live in this forest?” _

 

_ “Do you want a knife?” _ Keith turned his head to look at Pidge who also turned their head slowly in Keith’s direction. 

 

_ “What did you just say…”  _

 

Pulling the thin blade out of Keith’s right boot, he handed it to Pidge who took it with a surprised look on their face.

 

_ “Of course you had a knife in your boot.” _ A small smile spread on their face. 

 

After inspecting the knife, Pidge raised their head just to be met with the sight of Keith, holding another, more beautiful and bigger dagger. It was a dark blade with an oval shape between the handle and the front blaster, and on the oval was an engravement that looked like purple lightning.

 

_ “I don’t even know where you pulled this out or where this dagger is from. It looks special,”  _ Pidge judged only to get a small snort in response.  _ “After we have found some food and water, I want to hear your story. What you did on Arus and why you were on a ship to Kerberos.” _

 

_ “I guess that’s only fair.” _ Keith smirked in their direction.

 

With that said they made their way into the forest of ‘big ass trees’, as Pidge called it upon entering.

 

* * *

 

 

_ “You can't do that!” _ , Pidge whisper screamed in Keith's direction, who was now looking at Pidge with a bored expression on his face. 

 

_ “Well it's either going to be the hare or our starvation.” _

 

_ “But it's so cute. I mean, just look at it.” _ Pidge pointed at the hare and accidentally moved some leaves with their hand, which resulted in the rabbit being scared and running away.

 

_ “Well, there goes our supper.” _ Keith exhaled, putting his dagger back into its sheath on his back.

 

_ “Sorry,” _ Pidge whispered, looking down at their hands in shame.  _ “I just never had to hurt an animal for food. See, when I was little -” _ Keith snorted, which earned him an elbow in the ribs and a vicious glare,  _ “As I was saying, when I was A CHILD, my family lived in the city. My father was a local healer and… yeah I think you could say that we were a middle class family. We always bought our food at the market. Even years later in Balmera. People did not have enough money to pay for a healer. You have to know, Matt - my brother - and I are good people, so we also accepted stuff like food and other belongings as payment. We could not just have let these poor people die. Well they did die… but they had a little bit more time with -” _

 

_ “Pidge, it’s okay,” Keith interrupted them. “I get what you’re trying to say, but you have to understand these are different circumstances we’re in right now. We have to do this, if you like it or not!” _

 

Nodding their head sadly, Pidge agreed.  _ “I know, and I am sorry. Let’s move and try to find another rabbit or maybe some berries we could eat.” _

 

But both of them knew that the last thing Pidge had mentioned was likely not going to happen.

 

The pair has been wandering around the woods for quite a while with no edible berries or other fruits in sight. Keith was more than happy when they finally stumbled upon a small hare in their search, but now they had to start their hunt anew.

 

Keith was used to spending time in the woods. It was a requirement for his work to always stay hidden and this - most of the time - meant becoming one with the shadows of the trees.

 

After they set foot in the forest, Keith already tried to get accustomed with his surroundings and use the sun as their compass, so they wouldn’t get lost in the wilderness.

 

Trying to head east, Keith even made small carvings in the bark of every tenth tree they would pass, just to be safe.

 

All of this did not help in the end. This never happened to Keith. He usually felt more than secure and confident when he set foot into the woodlands, but there was just something odd about this forest. It seemed like they were going in circles.

 

After walking for some time, Keith took notice of this strange tree that had a crescent moon or a kind of sickle carved into its side. 

 

_ It is nothing special. Maybe some bird made this hole to build their nest in it, _ Keith thought after walking past it for the first time. Passing the crescent tree yet another time, Keith had a suspicious thought and carved a small mark on one of the roots at the foot of the tree.

 

As they crossed their paths with the tree for a third time, Keith made sure it was the same tree by looking at the roots to see if his mark was engraved there. It was.

 

After realising that this was indeed the same tree, Keith wanted to explain their situation to Pidge but got distracted by another hare that he saw from the corner of his eye. Hunger won over curiosity and they started following the hare.

 

They tracked the hare for a few minutes before the dense foliage hid it from view, causing them to lose sight of their dinner for the second time. With the hare now gone once again, Keith remembered the strange tree.

 

_ “Do you remember the strange tree? With the crescent moon or sickle on its side?” _

 

Pidge slowly nodded, not sure where Keith was going with that question. 

 

_ ”Something’s off about this tree. We have passed it for three times now - scratch that - four times.”  _

 

There it was again.

 

Inspecting the tree, Pidge made a confused face in Keith’s direction.  _ “Are you sure it’s the same tree? This is a big forest! I bet there are a lot of -” _

 

_ “No no no no! Listen. That’s what I thought at first too,” _ Keith interrupted them for the fourth time that day and Pidge did not like to be interrupted this rudely.  _ “Sorry,” _ Keith mumbled after seeing the look on their face,  _ “But you have to understand. I at first thought that it was a coincidence, too. That’s why I made this mark, look here -” _ Keith pulled some grass to the side to show Pidge the carving he did on the root of the tree, _ “ - to assure myself it was the same tree and it IS the same.” _

 

This made Pidge think.

 

_ “So you’re trying to tell me,”  _ Pidge pointed to the tree,  _ “that this tree is somehow teleporting us back every time we try to set foot behind it?” _

 

_ “What?” _ Keith looked at Pidge with wide eyes, indicating that he did  _ not _ think of the same thing and was now more than confused.  _ “How is it doing it?” _

 

Ignoring his question, Pidge started to go around the tree to see if they could find something that distinguished that tree from all the other ones in the forest, but other than the crescent hole they did not find anything.

 

_ “Keith, put your hand into the hole and tell me if you can feel anything inside it.”  _ Pidge demanded blank faced.

 

_ “What?”  _ Keith retorted.  _ “Why does it have to be me? It was your idea so you have the honour of putting your own hand into this hole. I am not going to let my hand get ripped off just because you were curious.” _

 

Lifting one eyebrow, Pidge looked at Keith unimpressed, who returned the stare with his own unimpressed expression.

 

This staring contest went on for a while until Keith finally gave in and Pidge just whispered a small  _ “Yes!” _ , which earned them an angry look from the former.

 

Still not pleased with the idea of having his hand getting chopped off, Keith first reached into the hole with his dagger and poked around a bit, seeing if he could feel anything.

 

_ “There’s nothing inside it,” _ Keith explained after a while.

 

_ “You don’t know,” _ Pidge mumbled.  _ “It’s not like you can actually FEEL anything with your blade. Use your hand.”  _

 

After another small staring contest, which Keith once again lost, he slowly but surely reached his hand inside the hole. Before he could even touch anything beyond the threshold, both parties started to hear a whirring sound in their ears.

 

Yanking his hand back again, Keith and Pidge looked around to see where the sound came from. After a final click sound, the pair looked behind themselves, in the direction of where the tree was standing, or more like stood before the whirring sound started, because now the tree had disappeared.

 

Not only had it disappeared into thin air, but the area behind the tree also changed. Instead of seeing a forest, that they were following the last few times, a steep hill lead down into a very different kind of forest.

 

_ “What,” _ Pidge breathed out,  _ “just happened? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!” _

 

_ “Believe me,” _ Keith stared down the hill, wide eyed, _ “I’m just as confused as you are.” _

 

Some time passed in which both just stared down, trying to understand what had just happened.

 

_ “We should go down,” _ Keith said and already started to carefully slide down while paying attention not to slip and fall.

 

_ “Wait, you can’t -” _ Pidge had started but after some thinking, they also started following Keith without any other hesitation.  _ “Wait for me! I have shorter legs!” _

 

* * *

 

 

When they finally reached the end of the hill, they found a small stream and after they had their fair share of water and had washed the dirt and sweat off themselves, the pair continued their search for food, heading down the stream into a small clearing.

 

The stream started getting wider and deeper the farther they went and it looked like a small river had been formed.

 

While Pidge searched the surroundings for berries, Keith looked at the river with a focused expression on his face.

 

_ There’s something in the water, _ Keith had thought. He started to take his boots off and then rolled his pants up, so he wouldn’t get them wet as he started to step into the deeper part of the river.

 

_ “What are you doing, Keith?”  _ Pidge asked perplexed after they heard the water splash behind them.

 

_ “There is fish in the water,” _ Keith responded while slowly pulling the dagger out of its sheath and stabbing the water.  _ “Quiznak! I missed.” _

 

_ “Well good luck with that…” _ Pidge shook their head, not believing that Keith could catch anything with just a dagger.

 

Keith was just so focused on his task, that he almost did not hear Pidge saying something to him.

 

_ “I’m not having any luck with finding berries!” _ Pidge shouted from the other side of the river.  _ “I’m going to head a little bit deeper into the forest, and see if I can find anything there!” _

 

By the time Keith turned around to answer them, Pidge was already gone.

 

_ “Don’t go into it too deep.”  _ Keith sighed but soon got distracted again by hearing another splash in the water. 

 

* * *

 

Some time had passed, and after Keith happily held four fishes in his hands, he made his way into the thicket to find Pidge and show them his catch.

 

It wasn’t particularly hard to find them, Keith just had to follow the broken branches, Pidge had left behind them.

 

There they were.

  
  


_ “Pidge!”  _ Keith called for them, holding his hands full with fish up for them to see.

 

By the looks of it, Pidge did not expect for him to suddenly appear behind them, and started choking on the berries they were eating just a second ago. 

_ “Keith!” _ Pidge yelled after they finally swallowed the berry properly.  _ “Don’t scare me like that!! I almost - is that fish?” _

 

_ “Uhm… Sorry,” _ Keith said at a loss for words, the smile slowly fading from his face.  _ “I guess I was just so happy that I finally caught some fish. It was not my intention to scare you.” _

 

_ “Apology accepted.” _ Pidge smirked, taking the fish out of Keith’s hands.  _ “Let’s make camp here. It’s pretty dry around here and there are also berries we can eat! Do you know how to make a fire? I don’t think I want to eat the fish raw.” _

 

_ “Ehm, yeah, I guess.”  _ Keith nodded. _ “I just need to collect some wood and leaves. Do you know how to gut and clean a fish? You could do this while I’m making a fire.” _

 

_ “Oh yeah, of course.” _ Pidge already started to pull their knife out, that they had borrowed from Keith at the beginning of their journey.  _ “Matt and I ate a lot of fish while we worked in Balmera. We had to prepare them ourselves, so I have some practice.” _

 

_ “So you can kill fish, but hares are a no no?” _ Keith smirked, which earned him a glare from Pidge. 

 

_ “Well fish are fish and rabbits are rabbits. That’s something different.” _

 

_ “If you say so,” _ Keith said smiling while he headed to collect his material to start the fire.

 

* * *

 

By the time the pair started a fire and cooked their meal on sticks, night had already fallen, and while they ate Pidge proudly explained how they tailed after the hare in hopes of it leading them to its food source. This is how they found the the bushes full of berries.

 

After they were done, Keith and Pidge had laid by the fire, with their bellies full and enjoyed the silence, or more like the sounds of different animals the night had brought with it.

 

Pidge broke the silence.  _ “I’m tired.” _

 

At that Keith sat up and had thrown more sticks to the fire.  _ “It’s okay. You can go to sleep, I’ll take watch. It’s not safe to sleep here unguarded.” _

 

_ “But aren’t you tired?” _ Pidge wondered, but Keith only shook his head. 

 

_ “Not yet. You go to sleep and we can switch after some time, okay?” _

 

Pidge nodded.  _ “Wake me up for our switch.” _

 

Pidge leaned their head on the cloak they were wearing, that was now folded under their head and was out almost immediately. 

 

* * *

 

 

A scream tore Keith out of his sleep.

 

Still half-asleep, he searched for Pidge and was relieved to find them sitting next to the fire looking tensely into the forest.

 

_ “What happened?” _ Keith demanded while slowly reaching for his dagger and getting closer to Pidge.  _ “Why did you scream?” _

 

_ “It wasn’t me,”  _ Pidge explained wide-eyed,  _ “It came from somewhere in the forest. I think it came from that direction.” _ They pointed into the forest.  _ “We have help them. What if it’s my brother?” _

 

Keith agreed. Even if it wasn’t Matt, they still needed to help that person. Whatever happened to them.

 

Getting up, knife and dagger in hands, they slowly made their way in the direction Pidge heard the scream coming from.

 

Keith noticed the silence that surrounded them. This usually meant trouble.

 

_ “Stay behind me,” _ Keith whispered to Pidge.

 

They did not agree with him, and retorted, annoyed, "I can look after myself."

 

_ “And I believe you. You are a smart and strong person,” Keith hissed, ”but I would feel better if you would let me face the danger first. You know, as someone who has experience with daggers and fighting. Do you have any practice?” _

 

Pidge’s silence was answer enough and so Keith sprinted in front of them and continued his way to the screaming person only to be met with the feeling of grazing something.

 

It was a strange feeling, because there was nothing that could have touched him, Keith realised, but after looking around he saw the crescent tree again. They must have crossed the line and were now on the other side of whatever this was.

 

After a few more steps they stepped into a small clearing that looked like a small path and then rather felt than heard it.

 

Heavy steps coming their way.

 

And then he saw it.

 

Time felt like it slowed down.

 

Running towards them was a lanky man with dark skin and brown hair, eyes full of fear.

 

He was not the one that made Keith shiver, but rather the dark purple, almost black…  _ thing _ that followed closely behind the man.

 

The beast was huge, even with its form hunched over like it was. The thing was covered in fur, and had a disgustingly huge smiling mouth, along with yellow holes for eyes. It was grotesque, even from this distance while it chased the man. No, it did not chase him. It was walking, as if playing with its food, seemingly giving it an advantage.

 

Keith was rooted to the ground with fear. He had seen a lot of beasts in his life, but never such a big and terrifying creature like the one that was heading his way. He was ripped out of his numbness by Pidge, who was now pulling him in the opposite direction of the monster.

 

Only then Keith had realised what was happening. The dark male that was running towards them screamed at them to run. Even Pidge screamed at Keith to snap out of it, they had to get out of here.

 

They were right. They had no way of winning against this huge creature, that now also noticed them, its smile seeming to become impossibly bigger.

 

Playtime was over.

  
It now started to run.


End file.
